Thursday, April 20, 2017

Censorship By Choice

More than two-thirds of those questioned said they had suffered threats of violence, a third cited police intimidation and 53 percent said they were subjected to online harassment, the report by Europe’s leading human rights monitor said.

“It should therefore come as no surprise that the survey found high levels of self-censorship among journalists,” the report said.

“Many are compelled to tone down controversial stories, or abandon them altogether,” the report added, after sounding out reporters from five media associations, including Reporters Without Borders, in member states and non-member Belarus.

The council’s secretary general Thorbjoern Jagland called on its 47 member states to fully implement its 2016 recommendation on affording journalists protection and safety in their work “to create a climate of open debate and free speech.”